Who hasn't put their 10c in over the V8s coming to town? All those "poor Newcastle East residents" that might be inconvenienced while the track is prepared. Personally, I find it hard to feel sorry for people that get to live near the most spectacular shoreline in the world. Don't get me wrong, I feel immensely for small businesses that are hurting during this transition and it is important to acknowledge what some people must give up for us all to be better off. I don't say this as someone that is actually excited by a car race in our city, far from it, I could care less about the race, but what it represents is much much bigger. It is a shifting mindset, it is a calendar marker that says to the rest of the nation that "Newcastle is a destination city" and that people should come here and see what we have to offer. Disturbances happen and life gets noisy and crazy sometimes, we really need to learn to accept the art of compromise.

When someone talks to me about this topic, often my first question, if they begin to complain, is "what would you like to see in Newcastle?" because now is the opportunity to ask for other events. We have a chance to expand the offering and have something for everyone. I would love to see 2-3 more festivals here like This That and Live at the Foreshore. Why isn't our Foreshore half-marathon competing with City to Surf run in Sydney? We could have our own version of SXSW here with a technology and music festival at once. We seem ok at Beer brewing, is there room for another Beer Festival? Tea festival? Coffee fair? It doesn't really matter as long as there are plenty of options... cause you see? It's making sure everyone gets something and realising that we all need to compromise to keep one another happy.